Saffron stigmas are the heart and main product of saffron flowers, If you look at these flowers, you can see some red strands that are saffron stigmas. Crocus Sativus produce saffron flowers, and these flowers produce saffron threads. This is the commercial product that we see in the market.
Saffron isn’t an ordinary agricultural product, and it has explicit stories, legends, and messages. We don’t create these things for saffron, and these messages have been developed over the last few thousand years. When I asked a farmer about his feeling about saffron, he said to me:
My family planted saffron for centuries, and our mission was to save water and create some jobs for our young people, so we tried to use human resources instead of an automated machine. It is the message of saffron, Peace, and Happiness for everyone, and trying to save water in dry regions.
Let’s get more acquainted with saffron stigma.
Saffron Threads Structure
Saffron flower is the main product of saffron farms, and if you look at these flowers, you can see three main parts:
- Saffron Stigma (red)
- Saffron petals (purple)
- Flags (yellow)
Saffron stigma
Saffron spice is the stigmas of saffron flowers, and their color is red. Saffron stigmas consist of three parts:
Red, yellow, and white part.
The red part has high amounts of crocin, and this subject is the reason for the saffron color.
The value of each saffron product back to the rate of crocin in the stigma. For example, the super Negin type of saffron only has the red part of the saffron stigma, and the rate of crocin in this type is more than 290, and as a result, the power of coloring in this type of saffron is very high.
The natural saffron stigmas have an irregular structure and aren’t so shiny. The ultimate product will be original and beautiful if saffron processing is raw and done with handy methods.
Saffron petals are another important part of saffron products that have some uses in industry and pharmacology. Recent researches show that saffron petal has some inspiring benefits that force us to change our view about them.
Saffron flags are the third part of flowers, and until now, they have been discarded without any use. But some experts have some sign of flags’ benefits and their valuable ingredients and recommend drying and using them, but we need more information to create a commercial product.
Saffron Stigma Components
All saffron types have been created from saffron stigma, and converting saffron stigma to each of these saffron types occurs in the saffron cleaning process. Determining saffron price depends on this process; for example, for producing 1kg of Negin saffron, we need 80-100kg of saffron flowers.
This volume of saffron flowers needs 20 workers and a full working day. Maybe this is one of the reasons for the high price of saffron.
Of course, we can refer to the time limitation in harvesting saffron, we have just three days for harvesting each of the flowers and just a few hours for the best quality, and if something happens at this time, we can’t do anything for the farm. We speak about hard rain or hard snow, of course, these can’t damage our products, but probably we can’t harvest them, and products get spoiled.
Saffron root is the white part of the saffron stigma, this part of the stigma doesn’t have the power of coloring, which means is a low crocin rate in this type of saffron. In contrast to the low color power of saffron root, it has lots of saffron benefits and is a new pharmacological target in the pharmaceutical industry.
Saffron root can use in various foods, drugs, and other everyday food products. Forget the beautiful color of saffron for some minutes and think about its magic benefits.
How to Dry Saffron Stigmas
Flowers come up in the early morning, and we must harvest them in some hour if we don’t harvest them, their quality goes to decrease step by step, and ultimately our product is destroyed. It is one of our principal risks in growing saffron, and when the product is humid, it can be destroyed. and if it gets dried, we can store it for years.
When the initial product of saffron harvesting, the product is wet and should be dried (wet = 8%) to be suited for storing and using. The saffron dryer machine does this work and reduces the humidity of saffron products. Also, we can use traditional methods by sunshine, and this method lasts two or three days.
Saffron Stigma Benefits
Each part of the saffron threads has specific benefits. For example, the red component has many good ingredients such as antioxidants, vitamins, and rare minerals. The rate of crocin in the up of stigma is the highest, and at the bottom of stigma has a very low rate, maybe this is the reason for the price difference in the two parts of saffron threads.
Saffron’s benefits are clear for everyone, but if we want to define some of them, we can refer to:
- Stigma can improve the immune system (1)
- Decrease signs of PMS syndrome (2)
- Saffron for depression and its side effect (3)
- Saffron benefits for hair (4)
- Saffron benefits for heart
How to Use Stigma
There are many saffron products in the market, and each of them has a specific product consumption recipe, but now we want to define how to use stigma. Whenever you want to use the stigmas, only pick up the amount you need at this time, and don’t pick up more.
10 to 15 threads are enough for four people in a meal, take a sugar cube and grind saffron. When saffron and sugar cube are powdered, you can brew saffron. It is easy; we should chop and brew saffron to release its ingredients, and then we can use brewed saffron in our foods and drinks, such as saffron milk.
How many Saffron Threads per Flower?
Most saffron flowers have three saffron threads, and sometimes and by the effect of the mutation, we have four or five threads in flowers.
